Syrian security forces fire on rallies, killing 30 (AP)

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press – 12?mins?ago

BEIRUT – Syrian security forces opened fire Friday on protesters and hunted them down in house-to-house raids, killing about 30 people in the deadliest day in weeks in the country's 7-month-old uprising, activists said.

The popular revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime has proved remarkably resilient, with protests erupting every week despite the near-certainty the government will respond with bullets and tear gas. The U.N. estimates the regime crackdown on the protests has killed 3,000 people since March.

Much of the bloodshed Friday happened after the protests had ended and security forces armed with machine guns chased protesters and activists, according to opposition groups monitoring the demonstrations. Authorities disrupted telephone and Internet service, they said.

The Syrian opposition's two main activist groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordinating Committees, gave figures for the protesters killed on Friday ranging from 29 to 37.

The flashpoints were Homs and Hama in central Syria, where opposition to the regime is strong. Hama is the site of a massacre nearly 30 years ago which has come to symbolize the ruthlessness of the Assad dynasty.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the observatory, said security forces in Homs were firing machine guns as they conducted raids in search of protesters and activists. In Hama, there were heavy clashes between the army and gunmen believed to be army defectors.

Syria has largely sealed off the country from foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting, making it difficult to confirm events on the ground. Key sources of information are amateur videos posted online, witness accounts and details gathered by activist groups.

Communications were spotty Friday in the Damascus suburb of Douma and in Homs. The move appeared to be an attempt to cut off the opposition's ability to organize and report on the protests.

"There was a very fierce reaction to the protests in Homs today," said Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso. Syrian forces opened fire as some 2,000 people gathered for protests, he said.

"There are many injured as well. Hospitals are having a hard time coping with the casualties," Osso told The Associated Press.

Majd Amer, an activist in Homs said sporadic gunfire could be heard as protesters poured out of mosques following Friday prayers.

It is difficult to gauge the strength of the revolt in Syria, a country of 22 million people. The crackdown does not appear to have significantly reduced the number of protests, but neither does the regime appear to be in any imminent danger of collapse.

The regime appears to lack sufficient numbers of loyal troops to garrison all the centers of unrest at the same time, so government forces will often sweep through an area in the wake of protests, breaking up new gatherings and hunting activists, before being deployed elsewhere.

The result has been a monthslong stalemate. Still, the capture and subsequent death of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, under still-unclear circumstances, has energized the opposition. Last week, thousands of Syrians took to the streets shouting that Assad will be next.

The protests come amid efforts by the Arab League to end the bloodshed, and debates within the opposition on how to bring international pressure to bear on the regime.

On Friday, many protesters said they wanted a no-fly zone established over Syria to protect civilians in case the Syrian regime considers attacking protesters from the sky, the activist groups said.

The protesters also called for international monitors, although most opposition groups reject the idea of foreign military intervention.

The Syrian government insists the unrest is being driven by terrorists and foreign extremists looking to stir up sectarian strife.

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Exclusive: National Security Agency helps banks battle hackers (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The National Security Agency, a secretive arm of the U.S. military, has begun providing Wall Street banks with intelligence on foreign hackers, a sign of growing U.S. fears of financial sabotage.

The assistance from the agency that conducts electronic spying overseas is part of an effort by American banks and other financial firms to get help from the U.S. military and private defense contractors to fend off cyber attacks, according to interviews with U.S. officials, security experts and defense industry executives.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also warned banks of particular threats amid concerns that hackers could potentially exploit security vulnerabilities to wreak havoc across global markets and cause economic mayhem.

While government and private sector security sources are reluctant to discuss specific lines of investigations, they paint worst-case scenarios of hackers ensconcing themselves inside a bank's network to disable trading systems for stocks, bonds and currencies, trigger flash crashes, initiate large transfers of funds or turn off all ATM machines.

It is unclear if hackers have ever been close to producing anything as dire, but the FBI says it has already helped banks avert several major cyber attacks by helping identify network vulnerabilities.

NSA Director Keith Alexander, who runs the U.S. military's cyber operations, told Reuters the agency is currently talking to financial firms about sharing electronic information on malicious software, possibly by expanding a pilot program through which it offers similar data to the defense industry. He did not provide further details on his agency's collaboration with banks.

Alexander said industry and government were making progress in protecting computer networks, but "tremendous vulnerabilities" remained. The four-star Army general noted companies that have suffered damage from hackers, such as Google Inc, Lockheed Martin Corp and Nasdaq OMX Group, had among the best security systems in the world.

"If they're getting exploited, what about the rest? We have to change that paradigm," Alexander said.

NSA, which has long been charged with protecting classified government networks from attack, is already working with Nasdaq to beef up its defenses after hackers infiltrated its computer systems last year and installed malicious software that allowed them to spy on the directors of publicly held companies. A Nasdaq spokesman confirmed the investigation into the attack continues, but declined to give further details.

OFFICIALS WORRIED

Hackers have targeted Wall Street investment banks for more than a decade, but recent attacks have been more sophisticated, coordinated and deliberate.

That makes security experts suspect the hackers were backed by countries such as China, and fueled concerns that cyber terrorists might someday use malware to wipe out crucial data and cripple networks across the financial sector.

China has repeatedly said it does not condone hacking, but experts say the evidence continues to mount against Beijing. In June, Google blamed China for an attempt to steal the passwords of hundreds of email account holders, the second major breach the Internet giant has blamed on the Chinese.

Earlier this year, security firm McAfee said hackers working in China broke into the computer systems of five global oil and gas companies to steal bidding plans and other critical proprietary information.

"We know adversaries have full unfettered access to certain networks," Shawn Henry, executive assistant director of the FBI, said without identifying the adversaries.

"Once there, they have the ability to destroy data," he said in an interview. "We see that as a credible threat to all sectors, but specifically the financial services sector."

The FBI has helped banks avert several potential attacks by alerting them to vulnerabilities in their computer networks, and by flagging possible hackers before they struck, he said.

Security experts interviewed by Reuters declined to identify any banks that may have data compromised, citing promises of confidentiality to clients, colleagues and employers that they would not to discuss the matter publicly.

Representatives of Wall Street's biggest banks including Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co either declined to discuss security issues or were not available to comment.

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Social Security raise welcomed in tough economy (AP)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – For some, the just-announced increase in Social Security checks amounts to an extra meal out, a little more cash for clothes or a new pair of shoes, some added comfort in retirement. For Elizabeth Davis, it's a crucial boost to the only thing keeping her afloat.

The 71-year-old Miami woman grew up picking cotton on her family's South Carolina farm, raised four children and has worked all her life, even now at a preschool. She is divorced, and her small 401k account "went down the drain," she said. So she counts the days to the third Wednesday of each month, when her $668 Social Security check arrives, and she is able to pay her bills.

"I could live a little better," she said of the 3.6 percent raise announced this week, the first in two years. "I don't have anything to look forward to until that check every month."

The reaction the cost-of-living adjustment has garnered illuminates the divide between the rich and poor among America's oldest residents. Social Security represents a staggering share of income for lower- and middle-class seniors — made evident just this week in a new government report — and for whom any increase can make a world of difference. For upper-income seniors, it's simply a nice plus.

Starting in January, 55 million Social Security recipients will get increases averaging $39 a month, or about $467 a year. In December, more than 8 million people who receive Supplemental Security Income, the disability program for the poor, will get increases averaging $18 a month, or about $216 a year.

Davis felt the effects of no raise the past two years. Her only other income is a small stipend for her work that averages about $232 a month. She's been using her credit card more and building debt. She's already trimmed as much as she can — from cutting her cable plan to limiting her phone usage to keeping the air conditioning off. She owns her home, but taxes, insurance, utilities and groceries eat up nearly all her income. As those costs rise, there was no wiggle room.

In Seattle, Joseph C. Visintainer, 63, lives alone with his cat in a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development complex, where rent is kept affordable. The retired restaurant worker said he keeps his expenses low in part by taking the bus instead of driving, and eating TV dinners instead of buying meat. Visintainer lives off Social Security and keeps some investments just for emergencies.

"I have to watch what I spend. I don't go out a lot like I used to," he said. "If I get an increase, I'll say thank you."

For John Bowker, 81, a retired executive, it's simply a little something extra. He and his wife, Linda, a retired computer programmer, live in the sprawling southwest Florida retirement community of Sun City Center, largely off their savings and investments. But a raise in Social Security adds some padding.

"We can do a little more on our weekends," Bowker said. "We'll feel a little less squeamish about going out and spending 40 or 50 bucks a month for a meal."

For many of the Bowkers' neighbors, though, it's different. He said some have even had trouble coming up with the modest $256-a-year dues residents of Sun City Center must pay on top of their mortgage or rent. Across the income spectrum, though, he said he hears wide acknowledgement from his neighbors that seniors are better off with Social Security.

"Even for us rock-red Republicans," he said, "this is one of the government programs that we would hurt very badly if it were not available to us."

The government formally announced the raise Wednesday, two days after the Government Accountability Office put out a report on income security among seniors that shed light on just how crucial Social Security payouts are.

The report found that household income rose 5 percent from 2007 to 2009 for those 65 and up, even though it fell 6 percent for those aged 55 to 64 who are just shy of retirement. Likewise, poverty rates increased among the younger demographic but decreased among those 65 and older. Many cite Social Security as a key factor.

Frank Chicoine, 80, of Stuart, Fla., receives a pension from his years working at a utility company, but that check's amount is fixed, never rising. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is the only raise he gets.

Medicare premiums cost him and his wife nearly $200 a month, and their supplemental health insurance is another $600 a month. His homeowner's premium went up by $600 to $2,000 this year as insurers have been granted hefty rate hikes. All his expenses seem to keep going up.

"I consider myself one of the lucky ones," he said. "But if I lost that $1,700 or $1,800 a month, it would change my life."

Chicoine isn't alone in seeing his income eaten up by higher medical costs. As much as one-quarter of the raises to Social Security beneficiaries could be wiped out by higher Medicare premiums, according to projections. Those premiums, for Medicare Part B, which covers doctor visits, could be announced as early as next week.

Richard Birch, 84, and his 72-year-old wife, Carol, said they spend thousands of dollars a year on medical treatments and roughly $300 a month on prescription medications after each survived bouts with cancer. They said their Social Security raise would likely be eaten up by the Medicare increases, so the couple will continue to live frugally as they've done for years.

The Birches have lived in their Geneva, Ill., home outside Chicago for 40 years and have driven the same car for 25 years. Despite earning a pension in addition to Social Security, they've changed many of their habits since the economic downturn.

"We think twice about driving places because of the price of gas, we don't buy clothes and we almost never go out to eat or have steak at home any longer," Carol Birch said with a smile and shrug.

The report from the GAO this week showed that among the bottom fifth of people 65 and older, Social Security comprised 83 percent of income. For the middle tier, it made up 64 percent. Among the most well-off, it represented less than 20 percent of their income.

The annual cost-of-living adjustment is tied to an inflation measure released Wednesday. The measure, which was adopted in the 1970s, produced no raises in 2010 or 2011 because inflation was too low. Those were the first two years without such a raise since automatic increases were enacted in 1975. Social Security recipients did, however, receive a one-time $250 payment from the economic stimulus package passed in 2009.

Doris Miller, 79, lives in the Tulsa, Okla., suburb of Broken Arrow and takes seven prescription medications every day for high blood pressure, arthritis and asthma. She also is recovering from a back injury. To pay for them, she's been charging all her prescriptions at the end of each month on credit cards and puts off seeing her doctor because she's afraid he will give her a new prescription to pay for.

She said she is worried that she could be close to maxing out some of those credit cards. With the cost of living increase, Miller hopes she can afford to pay cash for at least some of the drugs.

"Anything helps when you haven't had (an increase) in two years," she said.

___

Associated Press writer Justin Juozapavicius in Tulsa, Okla., Manuel Valdes in Seattle and videojournalist Robert Ray in Chicago contributed to this story.

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Obama to exclude Social Security from deficits plan (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will not include reforms to the Social Security retirement program in his deficits proposals to Congress next week, the White House said Thursday.

Obama upset many fellow Democrats during this summer's bitter negotiations with Republicans on raising the debt ceiling when he expressed a willingness to change the way government benefits are linked to inflation.

He saw the move as a way to ensure the federal pension program remains viable in the long-term, but liberal supporters who champion entitlement programs for the elderly felt he was giving up too much ground to Republicans.

White House spokesman Amy Brundage said Obama's long-awaited deficit reduction plan, to be unveiled Monday, "will not include any changes to Social Security."

"As the president has consistently said, he does not believe that Social Security is a driver of our near and medium term deficits," she said.

With Obama's shift in stance, the six Democratic members of a congressional "super committee" charged with tackling the federal deficit would not have to make immediate concessions, giving them more negotiating room with their Republican counterparts. The super committee is trying to find more than $1.2 trillion in budget savings over 10 years by November 23.

Obama's change of heart on the inflation formula could help lower the heat from his liberal base, and could also help Democratic members of Congress who are up for re-election.

Obama also expressed a willingness in the summer debt talks with House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, to raise the eligibility age for Medicare health benefits to 67 from 65.

But The Wall Street Journal said Thursday the White House was now looking at cuts to providers and increased premiums for wealthier recipients of Medicare, the healthcare program for the elderly.

A senior administration official said final decisions have not been made about Obama's recommendations to the super committee.

While Obama's proposals will not be binding on the committee, they will likely feed into 2012 campaign rhetoric and give the president an opportunity to counter the Republican image of him as a tax-and-spend liberal.

Obama is expected to recommend more than $3 trillion in budget savings next week, although Republican members of the super committee have already questioned whether that is achievable.

Boehner, the top U.S. Republican, will call Thursday for the super committee to consider tax reform that would close loopholes but not raise rates, as well as changes to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

He will also argue in a speech that Republicans and Democrats should work together to reduce business regulations and lower taxes and spending to boost job creation and economic growth, according to a summary provided by his office.

(Additional reporting by Andy Sullivan and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Ross Colvin and Vicki Allen)

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Security chief: Norway attacks work of lone man (AP)

By KARL RITTER and DON MELVIN, Associated Press Karl Ritter And Don Melvin, Associated Press – 1?hr?5?mins?ago

OSLO, Norway – The man who admitted killing 76 people in a bombing and youth camp massacre last week is a sociopath who acted without accomplices or a network of like-minded right-wing extremists, and kept his plans to himself for more than a decade, Norway's top police official said Thursday.

Levels of right-wing violence across Europe have been generally low and there are no clear indications of imminent danger from networks of extremists, security officials said. But they expressed concern that Norway attacker Anders Behring Breivik could inspire imitators among the continent's extremist, anti-immigrant fringe. Particularly worrying are similar loners who give no clues of their intentions to others before acting, officials said.

European Union counterterrorism officials held a special meeting with Norwegian representatives Thursday dedicated to preventing future extreme-right attacks, saying they would try to share information faster and better understand what triggers the rare radical to turn to violence.

"Clearly, one major risk is that somebody may actually try to mount a similar attack as a copycat attack or as a way of showing support," said Tim Jones, principal adviser to the EU's counterterrorism coordinator.

Police were on high alert across Europe: Finnish officers said they had arrested an 18-year-old man who ordered 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of fertilizer from Poland to build make explosives. Police said the case appeared to have no connections to the massacre; the national broadcaster YLE cited police as saying the man told them he wanted to make fireworks.

Breivik claims he carried out the July 22 attacks as part of a network of modern-day crusaders plotting a revolution against a multicultural Europe, and that there are other cells ready to strike.

But investigators have found no signs — before or after the attacks — of a larger conspiracy, Janne Kristiansen, the director of the Norwegian Police Security Service told The Associated Press.

"It's a unique case. It's a unique person. He is total evil," she said. "On the information we have so far, and I emphasize so far, we have no indication that he was part of a network or had any accomplices, or that there are other cells."

Kristiansen told AP Breivik doesn't appear to have shared his plot with anyone, and lived an outwardly lawful and moderate life before carrying out the attacks with "total precision."

Europol, the European police agency said it had agreed with police chiefs from Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Britain that its operations center in The Hague, Netherlands, would be expanded to include their senior experts.

The agency said that team would "urgently assess the wider implications of the incidents in terms of the threat from right-wing extremism across Europe."

The new network held its first meeting Wednesday, Europol said.

Europol's 2010 report, which covers the calendar year 2009, says there were four failed, foiled or successful right-wing attacks in 2009, all of them in Hungary.

Two security officials said there didn't appear to be any imminent threats associated with Breivik to countries around Europe, but that didn't mean a regional investigation would be ended. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Experts said Breivek was successful in his attacks partially because he did act alone.

"The Norwegians have his computer," said Bob Ayers, a London-based former U.S. intelligence officer. "If there was significant dialogue, there would have been a footprint. Acting alone gave him the advantage of not being watched by security personnel.

Breivik has admitted that he set off a car bomb in the government district of Oslo, killing at least eight people, then drove several miles (kilometers) northwest of the Norwegian capital to an island where the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party was holding its annual summer camp. He arrived at Utoya island posing as a police officer, then opened fire on scores of unsuspecting youth, executing them one after the other as they tried to flee into the water. Sixty-eight people died, many of them teenagers.

There has been no large-scale violence by the right-wing in Germany in years, but the Office for the Protection of the Constitution said it considered some 9,500 of the far-right in Germany as potentially violent, "with the readiness to use violence to achieve their political goals on the rise," the Office for the Protection of the Constitution said.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told the Rheinische Post newspaper after the attacks that Germany's intelligence agencies had the far-right groups under "intensive" surveillance, but that they were still a danger.

"Among the right extremists we know of some who could be dangerous, but they're not the problem — those who we have an eye on — but rather those who radicalize in secret."

Investigators will interview Breivik again on Friday and will focus on whether there is "any more danger," police attorney Paal-Fredrick Hjort Kraby told reporters.

Police have not turned up any signs that copycat attacks might be committed, Kraby said.

But they are clearly concerned. Kraby said Brevik's next hearing will be closed "just in case he's able to send messages by code" to associates.

Police have so far only interviewed the Norwegian suspect once, in a seven-hour session the day after the attack. Kraby said Breivik is in contact only with his lawyer and investigators. He also said the Norwegian police have been in touch with the FBI regarding the attacks, but he did not elaborate.

The national sense of heartbreak is being renewed daily as police slowly release names of the dead. Later Thursday, 24 names were added to the list, including 23-year old Tamta Lipartelliani from Georgia who died at the camp, setting the confirmed total by police at 41.

___

Melvin reported from Brussels. Paisley Dodds in London, David Rising in Berlin, Jim Heintz and Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm and Ian MacDougall and Bjoern H. Amland in Oslo contributed to this report.

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China, U.S. play down tensions at Asian security summit (Reuters)

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – The United States and China moved to repair strained ties on Friday, saying tensions over the South China Sea were easing with new conduct guidelines between Beijing and Southeast Asian nations.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, meeting at Asia's biggest security conference, appeared eager to ensure the dispute over the oil and gas-rich waters did not become another source of friction between the world's largest economy and the second-largest.

"I want to commend China and ASEAN for working so closely together to include implementation guidelines for the declaration of conduct in the South China Sea," Clinton said at the meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

Clinton will outline the U.S. position in more detail in an address on Saturday, saying Beijing and its Southeast Asian neighbors need to do more to cut tensions, boost communication and work out legal and operational details of their new deal.

But U.S. officials said China was clearly ready to tamp down tensions over the issue.

"China has come to this meeting with a clear determination that they want to ease anxieties," one senior U.S. official told reporters.

China acquiesced to the new guidelines on Thursday after almost a decade of deadlock, in what may have been an attempt to mollify ASEAN enough to take the topic off the table before Clinton's arrival. China, Taiwan, and four ASEAN members -- the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam -- all claim territory in the South China Sea and Washington has irritated Beijing by declaring it also has a national interest at stake in ensuring freedom of navigation and trade.

China says it has had undisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea since ancient times, and is adamant about not involving other parties to help resolve the matter.

The U.S. official said Clinton's speech on Saturday would address some of these concerns, and advocate for a more straightforward legal process to resolve disputes.

China has accused the United States of triggering tension in the region by holding naval drills, and President Barack Obama's meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama last week has added further strains.

Foreign minister Yang, hosting Clinton for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN security forum, said the South China Sea guidelines would "go a long way to maintaining peace and stability and good neighborliness in the region."

Diplomats said the guidelines were only a small, but important, step toward resolving one of the region's longest-standing disputes.

"If parties concerned abide by the guidelines, certainly tensions will be reduced," said a senior Asian diplomat.

"We have to engage with China so China takes the right course. China has to understand international rules and the South China Sea dispute is an important test case."

UNDERSTANDING SENSITIVITIES

Yang did not mention Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama, regarded by Beijing as a violent separatist, but a Chinese spokesman indicated it could come up.

"We believe that it is important to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, and to respect China's major concerns on the issue of Tibet and some other sensitive issues," spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters.

"I sense the U.S. side understands the sensitivity of these issues and we both agreed to promote further dialogue."

The U.S. official said China was "solemn" in its discussion of the Dalai Lama issue, but held its fire.

"I've been in meetings before where some of the rhetoric can be carried away. It was polite and respectful from both sides," the official said, taking this as a signal from Beijing "to maintain forward momentum" in the relationship.

Yang focused on U.S.-Chinese cooperation on a range of issues including efforts to bring North Korea back into six-party negotiations on its nuclear program.

U.S. officials said Clinton's meeting in Bali with Yang marked the start of several months of high-profile diplomacy in the region that both sides want to succeed.

Both Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao are due to attend a meeting of the APEC Asia economic forum in Honolulu later this year, and Obama will also attend November's East Asia Summit in Bali for the first time, giving him another chance to touch base with the Chinese leader.

Clinton will fly on Sunday from Bali to Hong Kong -- the first U.S. secretary of state to visit since 1997 when China resumed control of the city from Britain -- and will stop by the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Monday for a meeting with Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo.

Clinton is due to give a speech in Hong Kong on Monday that will emphasize the U.S. view of economic ties with China, which have been a serious source of tension in the past. (Additional reporting by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Sugita Katyal)

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Post-9/11, a security blanket for a wounded nation (AP)

MARTINSBURG, W. Va. – Brian Tolstyka stood at the edge of a giant American flag spread across several tables in the Veterans Affairs hospital gym. Wearing a leather vest with a flag patch and a hat with a flag pin, Tolstyka was about to stitch his place in history.

Gently clasping a threaded needle between thumb and forefinger, Tolstyka, 43, slipped it into the fabric of a red stripe. The 300 people in the West Virginia gym clapped. The Gulf War veteran felt a lump in his throat.

The 30-foot flag flew from a half-destroyed building across from ground zero in New York in those dark days after Sept. 11 — its stripes torn and tattered by debris from the fallen World Trade Center. In 2008, it was mended by 58 tornado survivors in Kansas with remnants of flags from their communities. Dubbed the National 9/11 Flag, it's been traveling the country ever since — a journey for the country's most recognizable symbol that has brought most Americans along, uniting more people in a post-9/11 world than it has divided in other times.

Within hours of the attacks, flags seemed to be everywhere: car windows, T-shirts, front porches. Wal-Mart sold 5 million by the spring of 2002.

Tolstyka, who served in the Army and organizes memorial motorcycle rides for veterans, went out and bought a flag for his car antenna a few days after Sept. 11. "It was a symbol," he says, "of support."

It was also a show of defiance against the terrorists, a rallying cry of unity and a soothing security blanket for a wounded nation.

"Every time there's some kind of national emergency, we put up flags," says Carolyn Marvin, a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania. "The flag represents the life of the country."

The Stars and Stripes hasn't always been as feel-good a symbol, depending on the decade and the politics. Defaced by Vietnam War protesters in the 1960s, invoked by politicians on both sides of debates about war and American values and burned by anti-American protesters overseas, it's been alternately reviled and revered.

Few Americans flew the flag outside of homes or businesses in the first few decades of its existence, says Marc Leepson, who wrote a book called "Flag: An American Biography."

But on April 12, 1861, when Confederates fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, "flags started appearing almost overnight," he says. Women wore them in hats, men put them in wagons."

Leepson discovered an advertisement in a copy of a New York newspaper that was published just after the Fort Sumter attack. It mentioned a paint shop that advertised red, white and blue paints, and touted: "These colors are warranted not to run."

After Sept. 11, 2001, the flag took on a larger-than-life symbolism and brought that unity to a grieving country. Bumper stickers with images of the flag and phrases like "these colors don't run" became commonplace in parts of the U.S.

A New Jersey photographer snapped a photo of three city firefighters raising a flag on the ruined trade center site in an image that instantly was compared to the 1945 photo of U.S. Marines raising the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima. Flags spearheaded a patriotic buying boom, appearing outside homes, on office buildings, mugs and pins.

Country Singer Toby Keith wrote "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" one week after Sept. 11. The song led with Americans saluting the flag and described wreaking vengeance upon the country's enemies:

"When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell/And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you/Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue."

In December of 2001, Congress designated Sept. 11 as "Patriot Day" to honor those lost during the attacks — and mandated that all flags should be flown at half-staff each year on that day.

Nearly a decade later, flags aren't hanging from every front porch anymore, but they fill many American blocks, and thousands follow the touring flags to touch something that connects them to Sept. 11.

For West Virginia's Tolstyka, the national flag in Martinsburg — a small city straddling three states in West Virginia's lush green panhandle — directly to ground zero in New York and the attack that tore it shreds.

"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity," he says, grinning through his long, salt-and-pepper goatee.

For Bob McKee of Van Buren, Ohio, the flag symbolizes how much the U.S. has grown and changed over the years, while remaining strong. The 60-year-old flies four U.S. flags outside of his home, a few miles from Findlay, Ohio — a northwest Ohio community that's been known as Flag City since the 1970s.

"People from both political parties, from the left to the right, the one thing they have in common is the love for their country and what represents that is the US flag," he said.

After Sept. 11, McKee draped the flag in black crepe.

The attacks did more than usher a renaissance for the U.S. flag; they have also spawned a cottage industry of entirely new flag designs, mostly sold to raise money for various 9/11 charities.

There's the "Flag of Heroes," which lists the names of all emergency workers who died on Sept. 11. The "Flag of Honor" lists the names of everyone who died in the attacks that day.

There are two flags dedicated to the 40 who died aboard Flight 93 in a Shanksville, Pa., field: It declares, "OUR NATION WILL ETERNALLY HONOR THE HEROES OF FLIGHT 93" at the top three white stripes.

A retired Catholic priest created the "Thunder Flag," comprised of a blue stripe on top, white in the middle, and red on the bottom. On the top blue stripe are four white stars, representing the four planes on 9/11. The other colors represent heaven, courage and American soil.

There's a "9/11 National Remembrance Flag" that is loosely modeled on the POW-MIA flag.

There's a traditional American flag with the New York City skyline, including the twin towers, superimposed on the field of stars.

There's the "9/11 Patriot Flag," created by a Sept. 11 survivor, which depicts the Pentagon, two trident steel columns from the World Trade Center and four stars, one for each hijacked jet that crashed on Sept. 11.

That flag shouldn't be confused with the other "Patriot Flag" — a 75-pound, traditional U.S. flag that's also touring the country to honor the victims. It will be in New England on July 4.

Marvin, the Penn professor, says it's common, especially after such a ground-shifting event like Sept. 11, for flags to take on the status of a "sacred icon."

Or a national quilt. In West Virginia — the 32nd state to host the national flag's tour — folks lowered their voices to describe their feelings about having contact with something that once was near New York's twin towers. Yet when pressed to explain, they fell back on simple phrases about America and pride.

Samuel Boynton, who served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam and used a walker to approach the flag, says simply: "It means number one to me. There's no other flag better than the American flag."

A New York construction worker retrieved the flag and stored it at his home in a plastic bag for seven years — then brought it to Kansas when a nonprofit group, the New York Says Thank You Foundation, went to help people there recover from a tornado strike. State by state, Americans are stitching the banner back together, using pieces of fabric from American flags scheduled for retirement.

The flag is in Southport, N.C., this weekend; at the end of its tour, it will be displayed at the National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum in New York.

Denny Deters, the president of the New York Says Thank You Foundation, his wife and their tiny Yorkie dog travel with the flag around the country, mostly in the couple's RV — although they occasionally fly. As he did in Martinsburg, Deters often emcee's each stop and introduces the people who lay the first stitches.

But the greying, faded flag that once flew across from ground zero might be most remembered for what it offers: a chance for ordinary Americans to weave a bit of their own history into the fabric.

Mending it, Deters said, "shows that the American people have the resiliency to come back."

In Martinsburg, Dawn Johns, 41, waited patiently in line. She had been there since the beginning, to mend a tiny piece of national history. She said that she could feel the patriotism, the emotion, as she looked at the flag.

"It represents everyone coming together and helping one another after a tragedy," she said.

Two hours later, it was Johns' turn to stitch, She had tears in her eyes as she took the needle in her hand.

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Online:

http://national911flag.org/

EDITOR'S NOTE — Tamara Lush is traveling the country writing about the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush.

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